Harvard Slave Photo Lawsuit Is The Perfect Amalgam Of White Supremacy And Copyright Trolls

I'm just going to side with 'the black person' because, why not.

For various reasons, this photo of a slave named “Renty” is the photo my mind recalls when I’m asked to picture a “slave.” I think it’s because it was featured heavily in Ken Burns’s “Civil War” documentary. It’s also just a striking portrait of a man who has been beaten, but somehow not broken, by American chattel-slavery. I see in the portrait a man who has retained his humanity, despite all attempts by white people to take it from him.

I knew nothing about the provenance or custodial history of the photo, until a lawsuit popped up this week. A woman claiming to be a descendant of Renty, Tamara Lanier, is suing Harvard University for the return of the photo of her ancestor.

At the center of the case is a series of 1850 daguerreotypes, an early type of photo, taken of two South Carolina slaves identified as Renty and his daughter, Delia. Both were posed shirtless and photographed from several angles. The images are believed to be the earliest known photos of American slaves.

They were commissioned by Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz, whose theories on racial difference were used to support slavery in the U.S. The lawsuit says Agassiz came across Renty and Delia while touring plantations in search of racially “pure” slaves born in Africa…

The suit attacks Harvard for its “exploitation” of Renty’s image at a 2017 conference and in other uses. It says Harvard has capitalized on the photos by demanding a “hefty” licensing fee to reproduce the images. It also draws attention to a book Harvard sells for $40 with Renty’s portrait on the cover. The book, called “From Site to Sight: Anthropology, Photography, and the Power of Imagery,” explores the use of photography in anthropology.

Wow. I did not know that.

Normally, when it comes to issues of historical documents and artifacts, I’m in the Indiana Jones school of thought: “It belongs in a museum.” If this is one of the earliest known photos of American slaves, then it needs to be somewhere on public display, and not sitting on somebody’s mantle. I am not the guy to go full Killmonger on the British Museum. Yes, white museums are full of artifacts they stole from other people. Yes, they should generally give them back. But, I think the necessity of making sure these pieces are properly preserved and displayed trumps any individual claim to ancestral ownership.

BUT… Harvard is not a “public” university. I see no good reason Harvard should profit off of the work of an apparently racist “biologist” who photographed human people, likely without consent and certainly without remuneration, like he was cataloging Darwin’s Finches in the Galápagos.

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Whether Lainer is the rightful “owner” of these photos is another complicated issue. I work on the internet, believe me when I tell you that I hate copyright trolls as much as I am capable of hating. But our current laws generally vest ownership of the photograph in the photographer, which suggests that Agassiz was the owner of the photos. Of course, those laws assume the photographer had the legal right to take the photos in the first place, which Agassiz probably did, in 1850, because slavery was legal, because this country is a racist piece of s**t. If Lainer was displaying this photo of Renty, you could almost see the Agassiz estate hiring an image rights lawyer to send her a ridiculous demand letter.

Even Lainer’s ancestry claims could be challenged, because part of the legacy of slavery involves making ancestry claims particularly difficult for African-Americans to bring, what with the white man’s poor recordkeeping when it came to slaves and their children and descendants. There are a lot of black people running around here who should own freaking Monticello, but good luck proving it.

The right answer here is that Harvard should give the photo back, and Lainer should donate the photo to the African-American history museum, and then we can all get back to fighting the still-alive-and-running-the-country racists. I mean no insult to Lainer when I say that I think we have more important issues of racial injustice and white supremacy to be fighting right now. Harvard, as far as I know, is no longer using that photo to justify theories of racial inadequacy, and I feel like that is the most important thing.

Harvard shouldn’t own the photo and the law shouldn’t protect its possession of the photo, but, whatever. Harvard should do the right thing. If it doesn’t, the courts should force them to. If they don’t, well, you lost today, kid, but it doesn’t mean you have to like it.

Harvard ‘Shamelessly’ Profits From Photos Of Slaves, Lawsuit Claims [CBS Boston]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.